1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is addressed to a system for an improved access to the Internet by allowing an easily implemented entry of alphabetic and other characters using telephone-style keypads of an Internet enabled device.
2. Discussion of Background
The availability of alphabetic characters using digital keypads such as shown in FIG. 3, is universally solved by pressing a corresponding numeric digit key successive times until the correct letter is selected. The pressing of another digital key begins the selection process for the alphabetic character corresponding with that key. The universal telephone display has twelve keys contains the numbers 0-9 plus the xe2x80x9c#xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c*xe2x80x9d. Each of the numbers 2-6 and 8 are associated with three separate letters of the alphabet while the numbers 7 and 9 are associated with four separate letters to provide a total 26 characters represented by the eight numbers 2-9. With such a system, in order to enter text, as explained above, it is necessary to press a digital key once for the first letter represented by the digital key and twice for the second letter represented by the digital key and three times for the third letter. As an example, to enter the text xe2x80x9cDOGxe2x80x9d the following key presses are required:
The availability of alphabetic characters using digital keypads is universally solved by pressing a corresponding numeric digit key successive times until the correct letter is selected. The pressing of another digit key begins the selection process for the alphabetic character corresponding with that key. The universal telephone display has twelve keys contains the number 0-9 plus the xe2x80x9c#xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c*xe2x80x9d. Each of the numbers 2-9 associated with three or four separate letters of the alphabet to provide a total 24 characters represented by the eight numbers 2-9. The letters Q and Z are not represented on all device keypads. With such a system, in order to enter text,as explained above, it is necessary to press a digit key once for the first letter represented by the digit key and twice for the second letter represented by the digit key and three times for the third letter. As an example, to enter the text xe2x80x9cDOGxe2x80x9d the following key presses are required:
Aside from the difficulty of entering this particular sequence, the problem increases even further when alpha characters in sequence are represented by the same digit key. When this occurs, it is necessary to either pause for a few seconds until the display advances or to press a navigation key to advance the cursor. This is illustrated by the following table of keys which need to be pressed to enter the text xe2x80x9cCATxe2x80x9d.
Entry of numeric keys from this particular display is accomplished by either pressing the key additional times until the numeric character is displayed or switching the entry mode to numeric in order to enter the digits correctly. Additionally, special characters are accessible depending on the different cell phone manufactures and typically require the switching of keypad entry modes and multiple key presses.
In order to address some of the problems with Internet access from mobile phones, digital phones are being constructed which are xe2x80x9cInternet enabledxe2x80x9d by the addition of micro-browser technology which is embedded into the device which enables the connection to a specifically configured server typically located at the wireless carrier premises. The emerging Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is becoming the standard for these type of implementations. These kinds of browsers normally have two modes of Internet navigation. The first mode is a default menu controlled by the wireless carrier which allows navigation and selection by pressing key pad digits corresponding to the menu items. In a second mode of selection known as a xe2x80x9cgo to Internetxe2x80x9d, a selection is made which allows the user to enter a Internet standard Uniform Record Locator (URL). In this Internet mode of operation, entry of Internet destinations is substantially identical to a personal computer browser. However, no matter how compatible it is to a personal computer browser, there is still the problem with time consuming and difficult entry of URLs.
For example, a typical URL must be addressed according to the formatted pages appropriate for display through a WAP browser as for example:
HTTPS://WWW.PHONESERVER.COM:443/index.hdml
The sequence which would be necessary to enter this URL from a telephone keypad would require between 75 and 100 key presses along with several pauses and key pad entry mode changes.
One aid in the execution of the above URL is an auto-completion of the URL addresses. This approach takes advantage of the fact that the majority of URL""s begin with xe2x80x9cWWWxe2x80x9d and end with xe2x80x9c.comxe2x80x9d. Therefore, this auto-completion feature allows for entry of only the word xe2x80x9cphoneserverxe2x80x9d with completion of the rest of the URL by insertion of the xe2x80x9cWWWxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9c.comxe2x80x9d
Once the auto-completed address is used, the phone user would typically be routed to the standard web server for a particular organization. This web server is set up to communicate with PC based browsers and will not be able to support the customized navigation required for an effective user experience on their based browser.
Even with all of these changes with respect to addressing the complexity of entering Internet URLs, the largest single obstacle to effect a navigation of the Internet from mobile phones is a difficulty of typing out words using a wireless phone key pad. This is even more difficult in changing light conditions or while in motion which has become a particular problem even for regular telephone to telephone dialing on mobile phones. That is, the problems of safe driving have come to the forefront with respect to not only conversing over the telephones but the actual dialing of a phone number.
Accordingly, there is a need for ease of connection between a mobile phone Internet based system and the Internet which addresses the problem of entering alphabetic characters in a telephone keypad.
It is an object of the present invention to provide mobile phone users with convenient and easy access to desired addresses on the Internet by using easily recognizable and accessible sequences of keys. It is a further object of the present invention to provide ease of access through the utilization of sequences of letters which correspond to the first letter represented by a keypad key.
These objects are attained by a system which allows the selection of sequences of letters which are very easily entered from a keypad in order to navigate to a particular Internet destination wherein this simple sequence of numbers is recognized by a registered domain name and is affiliated with a specified host that can perform rerouting of traffic from a Web server to provide instruction as to what Internet protocol (IP) address to use when routing traffic for servers in this domain.
The system features the development of software which recognizes a request originating from a phone base browser and uses standard Internet protocols to redirect the user session to the appropriate server page for the content. This approach can be extended by having this software automatically detect the source network (wireless carrier) and the device type and provide automatic routing to different application or different servers based on the network, device or security type required for the service (e.g. HTTP: vs. HTTPS:).
It is a further implementation of the present invention to add features to the web server routing software previously described so that individual mapping commands for a variety of Internet destinations can be managed by a consumer.
The Web server rerouting application of the present invention can be configured by the user on the phone or by the user from a personal computer web browser in order to provide a much fuller integration of function including entry of complex key presses to Internet URL mapping through a full keyboard instead of just a phone keyboard.
The Web server rerouting of the present invention can be accessed from multiple channels including one or more different phones or different networks or PC web browsers, or the routing can also be integrated with other application servers, such as call center or location detection servers. This allows for a routing of transactions or services to be dynamically updated based on user location, time-of-day or changes posted through a PC web site or a call center.
Another object of the present invention is to provide letters corresponding to the digits which can be used as a xe2x80x9cKeywordxe2x80x9d that can be promoted by content providers and be consistent across multiple carriers.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide that a new high level domain such as WAP could be created instead of .COM in order to be used to provide the related services.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.